St Thomas

 We woke up to a beautiful day in St Thomas.  It is much warmer now and the seas are a beautiful blue!

Today we went on a kayak, hike and snorkel adventure.  We took an eco tour through the protected mangroves in Cas Cay.  

 Here is Blue Heron hanging out in the trees.  These trees are very interesting because they grow in the water.  You can read more about them here.  

Then we stopped at an island and snorkeled for awhile.  We saw a many fish.  

Not sure what this guy is eating??

 Along the mangrove trees are millions of these little fish. Then when you look farther in the roots the big fish are hanging out.  Very cool!

After our snorkel, we hit the island.  It was covered with hermit crabs.  It was the most unusual thing I had ever seen.  When you looked down at the ground it looked like it was moving.  There were sooooo many crabs.  It was creepy, but interesting at the same time.

 We had a hermit crab race.  Some people picked up a crab and put it in the circle.  Then they drew a larger circle around that and when you made noise, they started crawling.  

Can you guess which crab won????  He was a fast little guy!

 Then we went for a little hike on the island.  It was so beautiful!

Thanks for stopping by................ Next stop St. Maarten.

St. Maarten

 Today we woke up to this beautiful sight outside our window.  Welcome to St. Maarten.

 Today we took a trip on a sailboat to do some more snorkeling.  It was nice because there were only 12 people on the boat.  We sailed along the coast to a bay and we snorkeled for about an hour.

 I don't have any good fish pictures from to this trip because there just wasn't that many fish to see.  I was a bit upset that it was such crumby snorkeling.  Then I told myself to stop whining because we are swimming in the Caribbean Sea around all this beauty! We are so blessed to be able to go on such a trip.  

We swam back to the boat. They opened up the sails and cruised for about another hour along the islands shore.

After our boat trip we took a ferry to Philipsburg.  By that time of day it was very warm.  We walked around the few blocks and then decided to go back to our nice air conditioned room.

Here is my favorite picture from the day.
 I love the cedar siding, the windows and the teal  color on the doors.  

Well that wraps up our three port days.  The rest of our trip was spent at sea, on the boat.  We filled our time playing games, eating, sitting in the hot tub, eating, working out in the gym, eating, watching shows, eating, crafting, chatting, watching the sea go by and did I mention EATING!  It was a great trip with friends.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a blessed day!

Coco Cay Bahamas

Our first stop on our cruise was Coco Cay.  It is the cruise lines private island.  It is a tiny spit of land in the Bahamas.  But once you got on the island it was a great beach day.  We hung out with Jule and her family.  

 

The water was freezing to me so I stayed on the beach.  Michael took his mask and headed for the reef in the bay.  He saw many fish and now I wish I had braved the cold waters.

 Here are some pictures taken while he went swimming around the bay.

Thanks for stopping by....... Next stop St. Thomas.

Winter Vacation FUN!

 We took a little break from the cold Virginia weather and flew down to Florida for a cruise. 
We met up with some friends, old and new!  

 We sailed on Royal Caribbean's, Freedom of the Seas.  We went to the Bahamas, St. Thomas and St. Maarten.  Let me take you on a little tour of the ship.

 One of the most popular areas on the ship was the pool deck.  They had what looked like a real fun kids area and then a large family pool.

 Above the pool area was the run/walking track.  Do you see the window area sticking out of the ship.  That is a large hot tub.  It was a great place to relax.

They had a large indoor promenade area in the middle of the ship.  It had shops, bars, and restaurants.  They also had parades and dance parties going on during the week.  I am not sure I would have like a room facing this area.

 They had a Johnny Rockets Restaurant on board.  We ate there for lunch one day.  The food was pretty good, but the best part was the hot fudge sundaes. 

Below is the flow rider.  I didn't get a picture of it in action :( , but people can boogie board or surf on this man made wave machine.  It looks very fun, but dangerous.

 Here are the greens on the ship.  It is a fun way to spend part of your day at sea.

 The eagle is made all out of natural ingredients.  The chef gave a great demonstration of food art.  It is amazing what they can do with a knife and fruit!

Here is a shot from the a lounge at the top/back of the ship.  It was a huge ship compared to what we have sailed on before.  
Tomorrow I will share with you more of our adventure!

Thanks for stopping by!